Trial with Fire
by River Digi
Summary: Another journey begins, but will the young trainer blaze with victory.. or burn out?
1. Chapter 1

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**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pokemon, but I do own original characters.

**Author's note:** If there is a Mary Sue in the story, please check the reviews to make sure no one else has already alerted me about it. I feel the AN is necessary, considering the first two reveiws in my first stroy, _A River's Journey._ Please R&R!

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The Fire Within

**Prolouge**

Looking around in his attic, and old man finds an old journal tucked away in a chest. He smiles and opens it, kneeling to pick up the picture that slides out. It shows a red-headed boy surrounded by his pokemon. He goes downstairs, into the room he had specially made for his pokemon when he bought the house. They all become excited as he shows them the journal, and pay close attention as he begins to read.

June 8th, 1993

I woke up and knew today was going to be a good day. It was my birthday today, my tenth, so I could finally become a pokemon trainer. I got dressed quickly, knowing what to expect we I went downstairs. After the birthday party outside, I sat in a chair staring at my last present, the one my Mom had kept hidden until all the other presents were opened. My hands shook as I slowly removed the wrapping paper, and I almost couldn't get the latch on the small wooden box open. Inside, nestled on a plush pillow, were two pokeballs that had each been decorated with a fire motif. They were warm to the touch as I picked them up. I noticed the silence in the room and looked up to see everyone was watching me. I looked back at them, then at the pokeballs.

"Come on out."

I threw both of them into the air. A flash of red light, and my first two pokemon stood before me. I couldn't believe it, I was now the proud trainer of a vulpix and a ponyta! The vulpix ran over and jumped into my arms, while the ponyta walked over and nuzzled my neck. Everyone cheered as I hopped on ponyta and rode around the yard with vulpix on my shoulders. All the time I had a huge grin on my face.

"Hey Aidan, wanna battle?" My best friend Shane stepped forward, two pokeballs already in his hands. His birthday had been last week, and he had told me he had already caught two more pokemon, but he wouldn't tell me what hey were. I knew why now, my parents must have told him they were getting me two pokemon and he had decided to be my first opponent. I didn't know if I was ready, but there was no way I was backing down. Adrenaline began to flow faintly through my body, and I knew the reason even though I had never felt this kind of energy before. It was my love of the battle in full swing, and it was at it's height after ten years of dormancy. I smiled and slide off ponyta and vulpix jumped off my shoulders. Both moved in front of me, and Shane tossed his pokeballs high. Red light flashed as a mankey and a nidorino appeared in front of him, I made the first move.

"Ponyta, Vulpix! Use ember on the nidorino!" My smile grew bigger when I saw their jets of flame stream toward the nidorino. It shrank a bit when Ponyta missed, but I was forced to turn my attention to the mankey. It had managed to sneak around vulpix and was now leaping at it. Before I could call out a warning, Vulpix was pinned. It let out another bout of fire, but the angle was wrong and the mankey easily dodged it. It started to make a chattering sound, which I think was laughter, and I got mad.

"Ponyta, help Vulpix!" Have you ever seen a ponyta or rapidash kick something using it's hind hooves? It is quite a sight to see. And painful, if the mankey's facial expression as it flew through the air to hit a tree and faint. Now I only had Shane's nidorino to worry about. From his grin, I had a feeling I should worry. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a strange dark stone and tossed it at his nidorino. I heard someone gasp when he did this, and I thought I heard someone mutter it wasn't fair and they wanted to know where he found one. When the nidorino began to glow and change shape and size, I knew what Shane had done, and it only made me happier. Somehow he had gotten a hold of a Moon Stone, and had decided to use it to evolve his nidorino into the nidoking that now stood before me.

"Are you going to give up Aidan? No one will hold it against you." I looked at him, so sure he was going to win, and then I looked at my pokemon. I knew how this was going to play out.

"Shane, I'm going to have to say no. Even if no one would hold it against me, I would hold it against myself. I would never be able to forgive myself if I gave up on my first battle, and I wouldn't expect Ponyta and Vulpix to either. Are we going to talk or are we going to battle?"

"Battle of course. Nidoking, Body Slam!" The poison type charged Vulpix, planning to crush the small Fire type under it's weight. But Vulpix was fast, it easily dodged and the nidoking slammed into the ground with enough force to send a small tremor through my back yard.

"Vulpix, Ponyta! Hit it before it can stand, Ember!" From two angles the nidoking felt the lick of flames, but still it got up. With a mighty swing of it's arms it wiped out the fire that had burned brightly moments before. With a roar, it charged Ponyta, it's claws gleaming wickedly. That's when I saw Vulpix dash in front of it. Nidoking tripped over the small fire fox and fell face first into Ponyta's Double Kick.. For a moment it held itself up using it;s arms, then it collapsed. I ran forward, scooped up Vulpix, and pulled Ponyta into a hug. Shane put his nidoking back in it's ball and walked over a clapped me on the back.

"Not bad for your first battle."

That's when everyone else decided to come back to life. Cheers rang through the air, and everyone started congratulating me on my win. Some of the stronger kids lifted Shane and I up on their shoulders and carried us around the yard. This quickly turned into a play fight that ended when Ponyta and Vulpix came to help me. We all landed, laughing, in a pile. Not long after that, people started leaving and I was left alone with my pokemon, to enjoy the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2

A Traveling Companion, A Burning Heart

As I sat there against Ponyta with Vulpix curled next to me, I tried to think up good nicknames for the both of them. It was getting dark by the time I had settled on names they liked. I named Ponyta Blaze because of his fiery mane and Vulpix was named Cinder because of the little pinpoints of fire always in her eyes. I got up and stretched, ready to go back inside to sleep, when a voice from behind me caused my blood to freeze, then boil.

"Hey, your Aidan right? Happy Birthday."

I turned to see a figure jump over the fence that surrounded my yard, landing lightly as another, smaller figure appeared next to it. It was Arrenvanthas(though you'd get hit if you didn't call her Arre), a girl who had moved to Pallet Town from the Hoenn region(A place called Littleroot Town I think) a few weeks ago, and her Ralts. Suddenly very aware that she could see me clearly as I stood in the glow of Blaze's mane, I tilted my head down a bit to cover my reddening face with my bangs. I'd never say it out loud, but I had a crush on her, and the fact she was in my yard at night talking to me didn't help.

"So.. I wanted to ask you something."

*gulp* "W-what?" Darn my shaking, I was sure she could see it.

"Are you planning on leaving Pallet Town, you know, to get Gym Badges?"

I found out it was easier to talk to her if I didn't look directly at her. "Yeah, why?"

"I was wondering if I could go with you?"

I'll admit it, if Blaze hadn't stood up behind me I might have fallen. I gave him a grateful pat on the shoulder for his troubles. "Um, sure. When do you want to leave?"

She turned and starting climbing over the fence again. "Why don't we meet at my house tomorrow at 10 o' clock? That will give me enough time to get ready and convince my parents to let me go."

"Okay." I said, but she was already over the fence and gone. I looked at Cinder and Blaze, who stared back at me, eyes laughing. "Oh who asked you?" I asked as I turned to go inside again. I glanced back as I closed the door to see Blaze and Cinder curling up next to each other, and knew I wouldn't get any sleep up in my room. I grabbed a blanket from the hall closet and spread it out on the grass so I could spend my first night as a trainer with my pokemon. My last thoughts as I drifted off were of what would happen in the morning....


	3. Chapter 3

Leaving Home

I hit my head on the ground and woke up, staring up at Blaze, who I had been using as a pillow. He snorted at me as Cinder woke up and stretched.

"You know, you could have just pulled my shirt sleeve or something. It's not like you had to stand up to wake me." I grumbled at him. I picked up the blanket and took it inside, noticing my mom was already making breakfast. From the smell, it was my favorite, cinnamon oatmeal with honey. I noticed two bowls were already on the table and filled with food. Taking a closer look, I saw it was pokechow, made just for fire types. "Thanks Mom," I said as I took Blaze and Cinder their food, sneaking out the honey bottle to give them both an added treat. Blaze was already munching on some grass and Cinder was chasing a leaf when I came out with the food, but they came running when I called for them. They were eating happily as I went back in for my breakfast.

"So what are your plans for today?" My mother asked as I sat down to eat.

"Well, at 10 o' clock I'm, um, going over to Arre's and then we're going to leave. You know, to get badges and stuff."

My mom looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "Arrenvanthas? When did this happen?"

"She came by last night and asked if she could go with me."

"And you're supposed to meet her at 10?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because you have half an hour to get ready. You might want to hurry."

I glanced at the kitchen's wall clock and realized she was right! I began to eat rapidly, almost choking once, and flew up the stairs to take a shower and get some fresh clothes on. By the time I was done I only had 15 minutes left, and had to hop on Blaze to get there in time, which had the added benefit of drying my hair. We stopped in front of Arre's house and I put Blaze back in his ball to rest before I walked up and knocked on the door. A man about the same age as my mom opened the door and looked down at me.

"Are you this Aidan guy that Arre wants to go traveling with?"

I won't lie, this guy scared me. He was really tall and looked pretty fit. It took everything I had just to look him in the eye.

"Yes sir, I am. Is she ready?"

"Hah, good lad, being able to ask me straight out like that!" He shook my hand as my face reddened and he called for his daughter. She came to the door in an orange shirt and blue jeans, tying her hair back. She took one look at my red face and glared at her father.

"I told you not to do that! Why did you have to go and scare him like that?"

"Because I'm your father and it's my job to scare the boys you're friends!"

"Next you'll be wanting to have a battle with!"

"Well, I did here about how he beat that Zane kid. Alright then Aidan, I challen-" Arre quickly shoved him back into the house and slammed the door. I could hear him laughing as she dragged me away from her house.

"Sorry about that, my dad can be a little.. overbearing sometimes. Just ignore him." She told me. "He means well, really, but I'm not sure he knows how to go about doing it."

"It's okay, my dad can be the same way. I'm sure he would have come with me to get you if he wasn't working right now. I guess all dads are like that." How in the world was I talking so steady?

"Yeah, I guess so."

We spent the rest of the walk out of Pallet Town talking about embarrassing things our dads had done, and only stooped once to see if Zane wanted to come with us, but his little brother said he had already a few hours ago, saying he wanted his next battle with me to be a total surprise. I was sad that he had left without me, but I glad he had a good reason. I resolved to beat him, no matter what pokemon he had caught, next time we meet.

Soon, we were looking down at the path that would take us out of Pallet Town to Viridian City, neither wanting to be the first one to step out on to it. I looked at Arre, ans smiled nervously. "Together?" I offered.

"Sure." She said as she grabbed mt hand and pulled me to the middle of the dirt road. The next hour or two are all fuzzy and hard to remember, because the only thing I was thinking was how Arre was still holding my hand.


	4. Chapter 4

A Crawling Bug, a Gym Leader, and a Burning Tail

Once my head cleared, I noticed how nice it felt to be walking outside in a new place. The wind blowing gently, making the trees sway slightly and making my hair wave a little. I looked up to see Pidgey playing in the sky, and little dots farther up(to far to know what they were without a telescope or something) darting in and out of clouds. I looked at Arre to find that she had seen all of this too, and she seemed to love the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves the most.

"Hey Aidan, look over there, in that tree."

I looked at the tree she was pointing to, and at first I hand no idea what she wanted me to see. Looking more closely, I noticed a little Caterpie crawling among the branches and munching on some leaves.

"Okay, it's a Caterpie, so?. They're pretty common Bug Pokemon." The look she gave said she either didn't care or I was a fool. Probably both.

"I don't care if it is a common Pokemon, I'm going to catch it! It would be nice for Psi to have a friend to play with." She reached for the pokeball at her belt and let her Ralts out. I noticed it huffed when it saw me.

"Aidan, this is Psi, he's my very first pokemon. Psi, this is Aidan. He's a friend so stop giving him that look!" She crouched down and started to explain what she wanted Psi to do. Once he was ready, he puffed out his little chest and walked over to the tree the Caterpie was in. He started to glow, and the Bug type floated down to the ground, looking really confused by it's sudden flight. It looked around quickly to see who had interrupted it's lunch, and saw Arre and me. It reared back and fired white threads at us. Instantly, Psi was in front of Arre, and the next thing I know, my right arm is stuck to my side and Arre's a few feet away, untouched by the String Shot. As I struggled against the strings that held my arm captive, Psi started to glow again as the Caterpie tried to hit him with String Shot. Instead of disappearing like last time though, he just stood there. The strings never even got close. Halfway to him, they started to glow too, and then curled around hit the Caterpie instead. Stuck in it's own attack, it started to struggle, trying to get free. After a minute, it became to tired to keep trying and stopped trying to get free. Arre walked over calmly and touched it with an empty pokeball, and in a red flash it was inside. It wobbled back and forth in her hand for a moment before beeping once and laying still.

"I caught it... alright!" She ran over to Psi and scooped him up in arms. "Thank you so much Psi, I couldn't have done it without you!" She gave him a little squeeze before setting him back down and coming over to me. "Did you see that? I caught it!" Her fist shot into the air a few times before she noticed my arm was still stuck to my side. "Oh! Why didn't you say anything?" She started working to loosen the strands of silk.

"Didn't want to ruin the moment I guess."

Working together, we managed to get the stuff loose enough for me to wiggle free. I glared at Psi but started walking again. About an hour later, we found a guy laying against a tree, sleeping in the shade. Next to lay a pokemon I had never seen before, black as night with yellow rings all over it's body. It looked up at me as I flipped open my pokedex to see what it was.

"_Umbreon, the Night pokemon._ One of the evolved form of Eevee, the rings on it's body glow when it is surprised or angry,"

"Huh, not much to go off of, is it?" Arre asked, looking over my shoulder and reading the information. "I wonder where he caught.?"

"About a mile away from Saffron City, when it was still an Eevee. Why do you ask?" Both of jumped when we heard the voice, and looked up to see the man was looking back at us.

"Well, it didn't look like any pokemon I had seen in the Hoenn Region, and I was wondering where I might get one."

"Well, if an Eevee likes you enough, and it's night time, it might evolve into an Umbreon."

I was looking at it, wondering what it would be like to battle it, when I guess the guy looked my way.

"Hey kid, you want to battle? I've seen the look in your eyes before, and I know what it means. If the young lady there is willing to be the referee, we can even make an official Pokemon League battle."

"What? A pokemon battle? You're not mes-" He cut me off.

"No kid, I'm not messing with you. Umbreon and I won't take it easy on you just because you're a kid either."

He was serious. A battle with him would be different than my match with Zane, and I wasn't sure I was up for it. I mean, I had only just become a trainer yesterday, and I think the only reason I'd beaten Zane was luck. I looked down, not sure what to do. I didn't realize the man had walked over to me until until he shook my shoulder.

"Hey there, don't doubt yourself. Do ever doubt yourself! It could get you hurt one day, and your pokemon too. Now look over at Umbreon. Just by looking what can you see? Do you have any pokemon like that?"

I looked up him, then his Umbreon. It looked sleek and fast, strong too. It reminded me of Cinder when she was fighting Zane's Mankey. I looked back at my challenger, determination lending me courage.

"I accept."

We went to an area with shorter grass, and I was shocked to see an official Pokemon League arena painted on it.

"How did you know about this place?" I asked, slightly confused.

"The Viridian City Gym Leader uses this field for his battles when he doesn't want battle inside. He won't mind if we use it."

Arre took the usual referee's spot and explained the rules of the battle. It was a simple one-on-one match, and would be over when one pokemon was unable to continue the battle. I let Cinder out so we could begin.

"Are both trainer's ready? Begin!"

The Umbreon didn't wait for a command before it charged into Cinder, causing her t o fly through the air and hit the ground hard. She got to her feet.

"Use Ember, quick!"

While she succeeded in setting the grass on fire, she couldn't hit the elusive dark type, so I changed tactics. "Tail Whip!" I thought if Cinder could catch it off guard, she might stand a better chance of winning. To my surprise it worked! The Umbreon, despite the guy's warning, started to slow down it became mesmerized by Cider's waving tails, until it finally just stopped and stared, What luck! "Use Ember!!"

Taking a direct hit full in the face can't feel good, but it didn't seem to bother the dark type too much. I saw it shake it's head before leaping clear of the fire. The battle wasn't easy at all, and the next ten minutes(though it seemed longer) went by with neither side willing to give an inch. Then the tide of battle turned, and in my favor too!

"Shadow Ball, Umbreon!"

A globe of darkness grew in front of the Umbreon and then shot toward Cinder, who countered with red-hot flames. At first it looked like like the Shadow Ball would force it's way through the fire, but then those ever-present pinpoints on fire in Cinder's eyes flared, and Umbreon took a hit from it's own attack and Cinder's. The explosion the combined attacks caused tossed the Umbreon high into the air, and it couldn't get up when it landed.

"Umbreon is unable to battle, Cinder wins." Arre announced quietly, though the words sounded deafeningly loud to me. She later told me I had this confused look on my face, like I wasn't sure what had happened.

Cinder brought me around, jumping at my chest and knocking me down. I began to laugh hard enough to start crying I was so happy, our first real battle over and we had won! Tired as she was, having been part of a battle just last night, it didn't take Cinder long to curl up on me to rest. I scratched between her ears as I sat up and slid her into my lap, watching the man return the Umbreon to it's with a "Good job" then walk over to me. He looked familiar now for some reason, standing over me and grinning. Where had I seen him before?

"You did pretty good kid, especially for some one new to being a trainer. Now don't look so surprised, it's as plain as the red hair on your head that you're a new trainer." He reached down to ruffle my hair, and I frowned as I knocked his hand away. "I've seen that look before, on another trainer when I was your age," he laughed. "You sure do look a lot like him."

Then something happen that was so unexpected, I still think I'm dreaming(though Arre says I'm not.). The man reached into a pocket and pulled out a small, rectangular case. He handed it to me, then began to walk away saying "You earned it. I'm sure your parents will be proud to hear about it." I looked at him, then returned my attention to the box. Inside.. was a Gym Badge!

"No wonder he wanted me to referee and make it an official League battle!" Arre whispered in awe, "He's the Viridian City Gym Leader!"

**Author's Note: If you hadn't already figured out that A) he was a Gym Leader and B) he's Gary Oak, then I'm happy I was able to surprise you! (^-^) No hard feelings I hope, I just didn't want to use Giovanni. Though I worry about you if you hadn't guessed A by now, since "Gym Leader" is in this chapter's title.... oh well.**

I almost fell over(which would have meant I was just laying down again, since I hadn't stood up yet) as it all fell into place. The field he had said the Gym Leader used, having Arre be a referee, everything! I hugged Cinder tightly and jumped to my feet with a victory yell, overjoyed that I had won my first Gym battle without even knowing I was in one! I finally did calm down enough to ask him something, but when I looked around for him, he was gone. So I asked Arre instead.

"Why didn't he tell me who he was? Why trick me into a battle like that?"

"Well," she said after a moment, "I guess it was because he realized you were afraid of losing when you thought he was just regular trainer and not a Gym Leader, and he didn't want you to give up without trying."

I admit I didn't like the being afraid part, but what she said made sense. "Man," I thought, "she's smart too." I turned away to hide my quickly reddening face, which turned out to point me back toward the road. "Are we still going to Viridian?"

"Yeah, we both have pokemon that have to be looked over at a Pokemon Center, and I want to have a go at him myself!"

So we continued toward Viridian City, enjoying the sights, each others company, and the pokemon we spotted along the way. Night came too quickly it seemed, and even though we could see Viridian in the distance, we decided it was time to get some rest. We let our pokemon out to stretch while we looked for enough firewood to make a fire hot enough to cook food. Actually starting the fire was easy, since Blaze or Cinder could use Ember. I still tried to show off and impress Arre by trying to start it myself, but ended up looking like a fool. I eventually gave up, frustrated, and had Blaze get the fire going while I went to get water for tea.

I wasn't gone five minutes when I heard Arre yelling. Rushing back to camp with a half-full pot of water, I found Arre holding Psi and her new Caterpie close, looking worried about a new cut on Psi's arm, and at first I thought he'd gotten into fight with Cinder and she had bit, but I saw her and Blaze glaring out into the darkness, fur bristling and mane burning bright.

"What happened Arre, why did you yell like that?"

"It happened pretty quickly. I was playing with Buggy and Psi when fire roared over our heads. This red-orange with fire on it's tail pokemon jumped from behind those bushes over there and attacked me. Psi got in the way, that's how this got this cut, from it's claws, then it grabbed the food and ran away. It all happened so fast, Blaze and Cinder couldn't react, and if Psi couldn't use Teleport, I'd be the one with a cut." I later learned she had named her Caterpie "Buggy", which seemed a bit less than creative to me, but I had nicknamed my pokemon based on fire terms, so I don't have much room to talk, do I?

I felt myself getting mad, but I had to push it aside to think clearly.

"Which way did it go? I want to get our food back and make sure it doesn't bother anymore." She pointed in the direction my pokemon were glaring, and I hopped up onto Blaze. "Cinder, I know you want to go too, but you had a rough battle today, and I want you too stay here in case whatever attacked comes back. Do you understand?" Though she growled softly, she bobbed her head once to show she understood, then went to stand guard next to Arre, who was busy wrapping Psi's arm in gauze. I patted Blaze on the neck and we were off.

It didn't take as long to find it as I thought, even with Blaze stopping to sniff at the ground every so often. I saw the glow from it's tail before I actually saw it. I didn't need to use my pokedex to figure out what it was this time, I'd seen new trainers get one from old man Oak enough times to know it on sight. Sitting before me and munching on a potato was a Charmander., the other bits food it had swiped needed water, so it ignored those. I was about to have Blaze attack, when I noticed how fast it was trying to eat. I think I even heard it's stomach growl, but that might have been my imagination. It didn't look as big as some of the Charmander I'd seen the older trainer's get, so I guessed it was probably to young to know where it could get food and had to start stealing. I felt sorry for it, I couldn't help, there was just no way I could stay angry at it. I sat under a tree to let it finish eating, Blaze settling down next to me.

Okay, so maybe sitting down not ten feet from it wasn't the best idea, but I really didn't think it would send fire my way when it stopped eating and spotted me! If Blaze hadn't blocked it with his own fire attack, I would probably be in a Pokemon Center getting treated for some serious burns right now, instead of writing this down in my journal. So anyway, after the staring contest between Blaze and the Charmander, I tossed a candy bar I had in my pocket it too it(I hope Arre never reads this, she likes candy bars), then leaned against the tree again. It looked at me strangely, then at the candy bar. For a moment, I thought it would run away, but it seems hunger won over fear as it darted the few feet to the bar and then scrambled back. Once it was done(it did have some trouble getting the wrapper off, eventually just cutting through the bar) it looked at me warily, not sure what I was doing following it and giving it food.

"You know," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, "you didn't have to attack my friends back there just to get some food. She would have given you something if you had asked, she's pretty nice. I'm going to get up now and collect the food you couldn't eat, okay?" I stood up slowly, not wanting to startle it into attacking again, I went to pick up the food. The little fire type moved away when I got near, but it didn't run off or attack. "You're welcome to come back and eat with us if you want, I'm sure Arre won't mind and she'll make sure Psi(the Ralts you scratched) behaves."

I went back to the campsite and told Arre why I thought the Charmander had attacked like it did, and she said she understood. The little fire lizard didn't follow me like I had hoped, but I guess that's okay. Dinner was nice once we got more water and fuel for the fire, but it's late now that we're done eating and I write all this down, so it's time to sleep. I wonder if any other trainers keep journals?

** June 13th, Wednesday. Day 2 of Travel**

Well, I just woke up to something unexpected, or should I say something unexpected woke me up? I felt something pointy poking me and I thought is was just Cinder wanting to play, so I rolled over. I got pushed next, and sat up to tell her I wanted to sleep a little longer.

"Look, I want to..." It wasn't Cinder that had been pushing and poking me, but the Charmander from last night! "Oh! It's um, you. Is something wrong?" I heard a growl, and at first I thought it was angry at me for some reason, until I realized it was the Charmander's stomach I had head growling.

"Well," I said, slipping out of my sleeping bag, "I'm not going to just give you food." It looked at me, such a sad look on it's face. I guess it thought I was being mean because it had stolen from us last night, but I wasn't. "We have to get wood for a cook fire first, or it'll be a cold breakfast today. Come on, let's go get some firewood." The look on it's face.. it made me feel pretty good.

So we went out to get some dead branches and stuff, the little Fire type rushing about and picking up firewood until it could barely hold them by the time we returned. Cinder and Blaze were awake, and Charmander avoided them after dropping the wood into the small pit I had made last night, breathing flame so the dead branches would catch fire. It waited at the edge of camp for the food to be ready, while Blaze at grass and leaves on low hanging branches and Cinder eats a chunk of dried meat she "cooked" herself. By "cooked" I of course mean burnt to a crisp, which meant I had to use a brush to get the bits of ash out of her fur.

The smell of cinnamon and pecha berry filled the air when the oatmeal was done, and I handed a cup over to the Charmander, who eagerly ate until it's belly stuck out. It's a good thing I made a lot more than usual, because I think the little guy ate enough for two or three people.

A mumbled "What smells so good?" made me look over at Arre, swinging slightly in her hammock. "Oh, you made pecha berry oatmeal! That's so nice. But why is there a cup lying in the grass?"

I looked back to where Charmander had been eating, only to find it gone and the cup on it's side. It must have run away when Arre started to wake up. Is it shy, or did it think Arre would be mad at it for last night? Oh well, it was gone now. Arre and I finished up the rest of the food while we talked about the Gym Battle Arre was going to have.

"I think I'll start off with Buggy. Psi can't do much against a Dark type like that Umbreon, and I'd like to see what what he can really do too, since I just caught him yesterday."

We packed up as we discussed strategy, poured dirt onto the fire, and headed out. The walk to Viridian too the whole morning, but we enjoyed. We had our pokemon out and they were pretty playful today. I played tag with Cinder, tried to outrun Blaze(I lost every time), and Psi floated Buggy up onto my head, which got a real good laugh from everyone. We reached the top of a hill as I was letting Buggy crawl along my arm back to Arre, when we saw Viridian City for the first time. We couldn't see much, but what we did see was cool. Buildings, a school bigger than the one back home, even a pokemon battle between some kids are age! We got directions to the Pokemon Center, and pretty much showed we were new to the town as we stared at everything from buildings to people walking around with powerful pokemon! It's amazing here, but its a bit more crowded than Pallet Town. I remember my dad telling me one day that I would travel like he once had, and that I might feel like this when I did, but it wasn't until toady that I was able to understand what he meant.

Writing about Dad feels weird... I'm going to go see how Blaze and Cinder are doing.

So I went to the Center's backyard(which is really big by the way) to find Cinder playing tag with a Meowth and Blaze racing another Ponyta(Blaze's mane isn't as dark as the other Ponyta so It was easy to tell them apart). I saw Psi floating under a tree while Buggy swung on bit of string above him(it was funny to see a Caterpie moving that fast!). All four of them were doing fine according to Nurse Joy, and seeing them relaxing like that, I believed her. Who wouldn't?

Arre came out a few minutes later to get her pokemon, and said she was going to go challenge the Gym Leader. She asked me to go with her, and while it was hard to say no, I decided to go around the Pokemon Center and ask the other trainers staying here if they knew anything about the Charmander I'd met earlier. Not many knew anything about it, but one boy did tell me it was probably from a Pokemon Ranch that raised starter pokemon until they were ready for new trainers. It's a few minutes north of the city, about a fifteen minute walk from the Center.

"It may have wandered away or ran away one day," he told. "If it hasn't gone back yet it may be lost though."

I thanked for his help, and he walked off. Well, if it was from the Ranch, that explains why it's so small. I'm going to get Blaze and Cinder and go looking for it now. I hope I can find it before it gets into too much trouble...


End file.
